Large Air Quality and Public Health Impacts due to Amazonian Deforestation Fires in 2019.

Autor: Butt EW; School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK., Conibear L; School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK., Knote C; Medical Faculty University of Augsburg Augsburg Germany., Spracklen DV; School of Earth and Environment University of Leeds Leeds UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: GeoHealth [Geohealth] 2021 Jul 01; Vol. 5 (7), pp. e2021GH000429. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jul 01 (Print Publication: 2021).
DOI: 10.1029/2021GH000429
Abstrakt: Air pollution from Amazon fires has adverse impacts on human health. The number of fires in the Amazon has increased in recent years, but whether this increase was driven by deforestation or climate has not been assessed. We analyzed relationships between fire, deforestation, and climate for the period 2003 to 2019 among selected states across the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA). A statistical model including deforestation, precipitation and temperature explained ∼80% of the variability in dry season fire count across states when totaled across the BLA, with positive relationships between fire count and deforestation. We estimate that the increase in deforestation since 2012 increased the dry season fire count in 2019 by 39%. Using a regional chemistry-climate model combined with exposure-response associations, we estimate this increase in fire resulted in 3,400 (95UI: 3,300-3,550) additional deaths in 2019 due to increased exposure to particulate air pollution. If deforestation in 2019 had increased to the maximum recorded during 2003-2019, the number of active fire counts would have increased by an additional factor of 2 resulting in 7,900 (95UI: 7,600-8,200) additional premature deaths. Our analysis demonstrates the strong benefits of reduced deforestation on air quality and public health across the Amazon.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest relevant to this study.
(© 2021. The Authors. GeoHealth published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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